Sunday, February 24, 2013

A Glimpse of Heaven

In February of 2011, Chicago experienced a massive blizzard.
During the peak of of this record-breaking blizzard, two friends and I had the
brilliant idea of going for a drive. My one friend owned a 4 wheel drive Jeep,
and we arrogantly thought we would be fine. Needless to say, we were wrong, and we got stuck pretty badly. But after an
hour or so of pushing in the below zero temperature, the car miraculously
budged from the snow bank. In a moment of bliss, we quickly jumped in and
inched our way towards safety. On the way home, we passed many cars that were
not so fortunate. Yet the conditions were so horrible that we could not stop.
Stopping would pretty much guarantee that we would get stuck again.

On our way home, as we passed dozens of cars in ditches, I
wondered what uncomfortable situations awaited the people in those cars. I
imagined that a family with crying children occupied the first car. I imagined
that a married couple with a rocky relationship occupied the next car (maybe
this extended alone time was a foreign concept to them?). I imagined the next
car contained a 16 year old guy taking a girl on their first date (maybe he
knew the weather conditions in advance)?

Upon arriving at my friend's house, I realized that we dodged a
rather uncomfortable bullet. If we were not able to get his Jeep out of that
ditch, our night of comfort would have been traded for bitter cold, empty
stomachs and a likelihood of being trapped in the snow for at least 24 hours
(as many people were). Even worse, there was only one small blanket for 3 grown
men...

Listening to the wind whistle fiercely outside, we had never
appreciated the warmth and comforts of home so much. We threw a couple of
pizzas in the oven, cracked open a few cold drinks, and cycled between playing
Madden football and watching Netflix movies. These
newly appreciated comforts, along with the knowledge that my work was
definitely going to be cancelled the next day, gave me a short, unexpected glimpse of heaven.